Randy Couture credits James Toney for assisting with UFC 118 win

BOSTON – UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture (19-10 MMA, 16-7 UFC) long has been recognized as one of the most strategically sound fighters in the sport of mixed martial arts.

As such, most MMA observers expected Couture to approach his UFC 118 fight with James Toney (0-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) on Saturday night in Boston exactly as he did – by putting the accomplished boxer on his back and ending the fight quickly.

Couture spent his entire training camp preparing to do just that, but it wasn’t until the former champion actually stepped into the cage that he knew for certain his planned approach was gong to work.

“The first thing I noticed when I got into the cage and kind of settled in was he was wearing those things on his feet,” said Couture, referencing what he said looked like “slippers.”

Couture said he realized early on in preparation for the fight that a low single-leg takedown would be the best approach to winning the fight. But the maneuver isn’t typically successful in MMA because of the difficulty of hanging onto an opponent’s leg when there’s no wrestling shoe to grip.

“That’s exactly why you don’t see a lot of guys shoot that shot – because it’s pretty easy to counter,” Couture told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “You shoot from a longer distance away. You have to get pretty low. A good grappler or a good wrestler is going to step out of that.

“You’re catching his heel, and hopefully you get some pressure on his knee and force him to his butt. I didn’t think James would have a counter or an answer to that. You don’t see that shot very often in MMA simply because good grapplers counter it pretty easily.”

But when Couture entered the cage and gazed across the octagon at his opponent, he couldn’t help but notice the large ankle supports on Toney’s feet. Couture even smiled unintentionally as he realized his plan had just been made even simpler.

“A huge thing when you’re shooting a low single is you’re used to doing it against wrestlers, and we’re wearing shoes,” Couture said. “It’s something to grip. When he had those things on his feet, I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be better. I have something I can grip. If it gets dicey or he tries to step out of it, I’ve got something I can hang onto other than his sweaty foot.'”

With Couture’s storied history of beautiful techniques, Saturday’s low drive into Toney’ ankle may not have been the most picturesque of his career. But to UFC president Dana White, who was worried that the 43-year-old boxer might clip Couture and launch into a never-ending parade of I-told-you-sos, the technique was a thing of beauty.

“I thought it was the best takedown I’ve ever seen in my life,” White joked. “Big fan of the low single.”

Couture said he never had any delusions of beating the boxer at his own game, and the low single provided the exact method he needed to get the fight in his domain while lowering the risk of catching a counter on the way in.

“Exactly how I saw it in my head,” Couture said. “I had no illusion of standing around and trading any kind of blows with James. I had to pull out the old low single from college and dust it off. The whole camp I was working on the low single because it’s pretty hard to counter-punch that.

“You have to be within arm’s length to really hit a double-leg. If I’m within arm’s length, guess what. He’s got arms he can hit with me. I thought I could get to his feet and put him on his butt.”

Once there, the result was pretty much inevitable. Couture said he could hear Toney’s camp offering him sound advice, but the boxing champ did little to show he was capable of executing the directions.

“I didn’t feel like he demonstrated any real solid skills once he hit his butt,” Couture said. “He didn’t close his guard. He didn’t protect himself well. I was able to maneuver and get to mount pretty easily. From mount, I knew he had no idea.

“You could hear his corner yelling at him, ‘Trap his arm and roll.’ I could hear what they were trying to get him to do. I think he was more interested in trying to punch me in the head.”

Couture looked as if he could pretty much choose his path to victory once on top. He elected for an arm-triangle choke that forced Toney to submit three minutes and 19 seconds into the opening round.

Couture smiled as he explained his logic.

“I kind of wanted James to have the complete mixed-martial-arts experience,” Couture said.

Of course, “Lights Out” didn’t quite get the full experience. He didn’t bother with the evening’s post-fight press conference – nor did he bother to address White, the man he pestered for his shot in the UFC, before leaving Boston’s TD Garden.

But he did send one message to Couture, who declined to engage in any of the pre-fight banter Toney tried to initiate. But Couture finally took one small swipe at the oft-subtitled boxer as he relayed that short statement to the media.